Sekder Ka Tan Dayew Mi, 5

BACK IN DAGUPAN. REPAST.

I got back to Dagupan a little before nightfall. I resolved to eat at places other than Galvan, but with the night creeping, I relented. I ate at the same place I ate that morning. I was served 1/4 kilo of pigar-pigar, but this time with no cabbage, just onions.

I had time to talk with the waitress. It was then she told me that kaleskes was made from beef also, though it was unclear if it was cow innards. When I said that I thought it was made from fish, she said, "Oh - that's kaliskis." I laughed: of course, what was I thinking?

-0-

EPILOGUE


I got on a bus that evening, bound for Manila. It was the best single-day trip I had ever made (with the possible exceptions of Gumaca, whose beach is accessible from the town center, and Atimonan, whose Lavides Bridge had me thinking about an earthly paradise for the eyes). It was truly worth going to Pangasinan, and especially as an unguided tourist. Every place is accessible from every other place, at least in old Pangasinan, the towns where I've been to. Of course, the west is a different story: the only real populated place there is Alaminos City, and the west is mountainous, kinda like Batangas. But central Pangasinan is steeped in civilization. It is right to be proud of its old buildings.

However, I would like to stress that Pangasinan must develop further. The city of Dagupan can develop its own metro region very fast, and it's good that the call center industry has started noticing it. But more entrepreneurs are needed in Dagupan. It cannot be forever known as the Bangus Capital; it must develop its own food chains, supermarket chains, etc. The CSI Malls and the Magic Malls are good starting points.

Lingayen, too, must develop its self-promotion as a historical and, well, recreational tourist destination. Above all, the old Casa Real must be restored. Spanish Lingayen and American Lingayen taken together provide a history lesson not only to Pangasinenses, but also to other Filipinos, not merely as a favorite invasion spot, but also as two different town layouts with different architectures and different auras.

And then, the province's historical connections with La Union and Benguet must be promoted as well, and expanded. As I've said, the Pangasinenses are cousins of the Ibaloi and other Southern Cordillerans, the most economically (and politically) successful of these Cordillerans. They have also worked with the hardy Ilocanos from the north. These connections situate Pangasinan where it really is. We need not imagine a Pangasinan polity - it is there, and such are its neighbors and influences.

-0-

I have yet to talk about my journey into Abra and Apayao, two very different provinces of the Cordillera Administrative region. That might be about mid-December already, because I've other topics to talk about. :D Stay sharp, y'all!

Sekder Ka Tan Dayew Mi, 3

LINGAYEN

Lingayen is known for being the birthplace of "Tabako", or Fidel V. Ramos, the 12th Philippine President. It's also known in world history for being one of the landing spots of the Japanese during their conquest of the Philippines, and then for being one of the landing spots of the Americans when they returned to liberate the Islands.

The Pangasinan provincial website says that this town was named because of what people used to do when they passed a very large tamarind tree, to look back at their town: lingawen. Of course, this is way classier than "Pa, good food" for Pagudpud, but I don't know. I haven't seen the tamarind tree.

Tamarind tree or no tamarind tree, I soon found out that there were two faces of Lingayen.

THE AMERICAN NORTH

This is arranged in a very rectilinear pattern, and I guessed (correctly, it turns out) that it was an American creation. I'm not good in styles and periods, but this park felt different from parks in Manila or elsewhere, and not just because of the lack of people. The capitol is, as most people involved with Philippine heritage will tell you, is from the American period. It was built in 1919, a rather imposing structure.

The park. 

When I came, there were airplanes flying over the park every 15 minutes. This is because Lingayen also has an airport, and that's about just a kilometer away from here. No 747s, thank goodness, just Cessnas and other small planes. It's not considered a domestic airport: no major domestic airline flies to it.

By the way, I suspect that there are rather few people in the park - because the majority of plaza goers would rather hang out at the beach!

The beach. This is where the Japs and the Yankees landed. It's just behind the Capitol complex.

Yes, the beach. I mean, Lingayen beach is just behind the Capitol. It's public, it's wide, and it's free. Of course, you must watch your valuables yourself. Unlike most beaches we've been to through the years, you won't see anything if you look far out. The nearest land mass of any size may well be the Paracel Islands. So I find it kinda surreal.

I did swim in the cool water, taking in the unreality of it all. A beach wide, as far as the eye can see. Just sand and water all around. And in the horizon, no islands, just the water and the sky. It was really hard for me to leave the place, but I had to. I shouldn't spend all day on a beach, though... I could on this one...

THE SPANISH SOUTH

Being the novice backpacker, I managed to rinse myself by hose outside the public restroom, partially dry my clothes and towel, and set out again, this time for the town center. It costs Php 15 to get to the munisipyo from the Capitol Plaza by trike. When I did get out of the trike, I saw this:

Lingayen town center on a Saturday, 10 am. 

The plaza, it turns out, was holding a bazaar. There is a Roman Catholic cemetery which I have not gone to, but it may be old. One of my friends just pointed this out to me. But I did go to the church.

Even if you were Ilocano, you will understand only 25% of the words
written in the language above the English one.
If you're Tagalog, don't think you can. 

One of the reasons I like visiting churches is because they are repositories of the local language. In a Philippine Republic which tries to impose Filipino (Tagalog) on all its peoples, the churches are nearly the only places where you get to find things written in the local languages. Especially here in Pangasinan, where, although the Provincial Government is launching a campaign to preserve the Pangasinan language, people use Tagalog very, very often. And youths are beginning to learn Tagalog and use it instead of Pangasinan.

One of the reasons people give for not teaching Pangasinan to their kids, or for not learning it themselves, is that it is hard to learn. Obviously, they haven't encountered studies (as well as most Filipinos, sadly) that say that the best method of teaching a language to a child is to speak it in front of them. There will be language mixing somewhere around 7 years, but these things tend to resolve themselves by early adolescence.

Although, I admit it, the Pangasinan language IS really hard for outsiders to learn (even the Ilocanos cannot understand them). The language is related to Nabaloi, the language of the Ibaloi people of Baguio and southern Benguet, and also to Kallahan, Keley-i, and Kayapa, all of which are spoken in the Cordillera Mountains and almost never heard of here in Manila.

Anyway, returning to the church, Ivan Henares has said something about the old convent having been demolished under the Archbishop's watch, to give way to the commercial complex. That's removing the Spanishness of this old town. On the other hand, he also captured with his lenses, among other things, the ancient casa real of Lingayen. That, says people I interviewed around the perimeter, was the old provincial hall of Pangasinan.  

The Lingayen casa real, October 15, 2011.
Cf. Ivan Henares' photo on the link above.  Even the walls are gone.

I heard that they're planning to restore it. Exactly how, I dunno, because I saw virtually a skeleton of the old building. The partition walls and windows have been removed. In five years (Henares' account was written in 2006), it was reduced to nothing. They didn't spare the cartouche. 

In any case, Homer Nievera also went here and captured, not only the church, but (we seem to have fun with it) the "Kampana Museum".

The Kampana Museum. It doubles as a resting place for tired drivers and travellers.
Six bells for you, sire. 

These are really old bells. It's rather normal for a Spanish-era church to display one or more of its old bells near or at their parking lot. But this is somewhat grandiose for me. Six bells in a shed, with platforms. This must have been an important town, and it was.

  

That done, I got on the bus and went to Binmaley, just 4 km away.